ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) - A 60-year-old St. Charles man is dead after a fire started near the hospital bed where he was trapped in his apartment.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Richard J. Ackfeld was found by firefighters at 5:30 p.m. Saturday lying in a hospital bed in a front room.
A St. Charles Fire Department spokesman says the fire started near Ackfeld's bed, but it's not clear how it started. Capt. Dan Casey says the man's wife was not at home and there were no working smoke detectors in the apartment.
Firefighters revived the couple's cat using animal oxygen masks that had been donated to the Fire Department.
Casey says no cause of death has been determined, but Ackfeld was badly burned.